LEAVINGLAFLORESTAis
a documentary that
chronicles the forced
DisplacementofoneColombianfamily.AbelardoandOlgawerefarmers intheColombiancountryside,growingcropslikeyucca,plantains,and
cacao
(chocolate)
to support
their
family.
In 2010, their crops were destroyedbyU.S.sprayplanesthatweretargetingcoca(cocaine)crops.
After theircropsweredestroyed,theytooktheirfive children,packedup
everything they
owned, and journeyed
to the city slums
in search of
work andshelter.Thisfilmtellsthestoryofthisfamilyandchallengestheviewer to
think
through this U.S.
drug policy
known
as Plan
Colombia

TheLatino Traditions
project was
funded by
the
NC Arts Council Folklife
pro- gram and
consists of
a multimedia website that
focuses
on Latin
American
folkloric traditions
in North
Carolina as
seen
though
the
eyes
of immigrants who practice
them.
Thewebsite highlights three
differentaspect of
Latin American folklore through
three short
documentaries
and
a series
of stand alone
interviews with
the
participants.
Theseinterviews
add and deepen the stories
told
through the short
documentaries.

Theimmigrants
in these stories
come
from
Mexico, Chile and Colombia; they
illuminatedifferentaspects of
Latin American folklore,
but they also
share a struggle
to retain
their
traditions as
a means to
re-connect
with their homeland, teach
their
children Spanish and educate
the
general public
about the diversity of
Latin American culture. It’s
a two-step process
that reminds them of
how
far away they
are
and
yet how close they
can
be.

From Rodrigo
Dorfman:
Latino
Traditions is
a project that
comes
out
of my
25 years
witnessing
the
birth of
a Latino
community
in North Carolina.
It has
always been my
belief
that the mo-
ment
a Latin American immigrates
to the USA, he
or she
will undergo a slow
conscious and unconscious transformation,
and
become
a “Latino(a)”; someone with
one
foot in Latin
America and the other
in the
USA community where
their
children are growing
up.
Thisdoubling of
our conscious identity;
this
expansion of
who
we are,
affectsthe way
we experience the national tradi-
tions of
the
homeland
we leftbehind.We
filterthem
through
the
filtersof
distance, loss
and
the
pride
to share
and
the
desire to pass them on
to our
assimilated
children. So, the idea
of a Latino
Tradition
is in itself a hybrid filter,an ideal
from
which
to view the transformation
of the tradi-
tions themselves as
they evolve within
the
immigrant experience.